Filipino fighters score thru Fernandez, Suarez

INCHEON, South Korea – The much touted boxers, toughened in a two-week Adelaide training camp, launched their campaign for an ambitious four-gold medal haul with ego-boosting wins by Mario Fernandez and Charly Suarez yesterday in the first round of boxing competitions at the Seonhak boxing gym.

Fernandez, Myanmar Southeast Asian Games champion, found his 2013 victim Thai Thathi Donchai overly cautious and far less aggressive and pounced on the opportunity to score a neat 3-0 victory in the round of 32 of the bantamweight event in the Asian Games here.

Fernandez went on attack mode early, throwing a wide variety of punches against the defensive Thai but it was in the second round where an uppercut, a solid straight and a right cross – all in succession – gave him the winning points.

“He was not as aggressive as he was in 2013 in Myanmar where Mario won (2-1), so our boy kept attacking from the start,” said national coach Nolito Velasco of the lopsided win which put Fernandez on the round of 16 against the winner in the match between Rai Puran of Nepal and Sharahili Yahya Hassan of Saudi Arabia.

“Both of these fighters will be easy prey for Mario,” said Velasco as he and Fernandez watched the fight live on close-circuit TV during cooling down exercises at the Philippine tent.

The judges scored it 9-10, 9-10, 10-9 (28-29), 9-10, 9-10, 10-8(28-29), 9-10, 9-10, 9-10 (27-30) all in favor of Fernandez.

Suarez came through with his arsenal of left hooks and right straight to earn a 29-28, 28-29, 29-28 decision over Abduraimove Elnur of Uzbekistan in the lightweight division. He booked a place in the round of 16 against India’s Kumar Akhil, who won by knockout over Nepalese Lama Purna Bahadur in one minute, 34 seconds into the third round.

It was a big start to the gold-medal campaign of the Filipinos who all didn’t have the luck of the draw which favored half the field which drew a bye to the second round.

Today will be a busy day for the boxing team where the rest of the male boxers – Olympian Mark Anthony Barriga (light flyweight), Ian Clark Bautista (flyweight), Dennis Galvan (light welterweight) and Wilfredo Lopez (middleweight) – launch their respective campaigns in the round of 32.

Tomorrow, women boxers Josie Gabuco (flyweight) and Nesthy Petecio (lightweight) step on the ring at the start of the women’s events played in only three divisions in this year’s Asiad.

Barriga will be up against Hussin Al Masri of Syria, Bautista against Sahamon Abdallah Maher Mohammad of Jordan, Galvan against Chinzorig Baatarsukh of Mongolia and Lopez against Achilov Aziz of Turkmenistan.

In the women’s section, Petecio collides with Ubbiniyavzova Guizhaina of Kazakhstan while Gabuco trades punches with Lin Yu Ting of Taipei.